D&D 5E What a small industry 5e publishing really is, and WOTC are thieves.

[Parmandur]

He's way too nice a guy. I don't like people like that get screwed over.

Facts not in evidence.

 

[Cadence]

If the buyer - whether purchasing trading cards, intellectual property rights, stock, or land - knows they're paying well under what something is worth to someone who doesn't know better, then that certainly seems douchey. But the person I sold black bordered power magic to back in the day doesn't owe me anything for it going up. Same in the case of property or stocks that spiked. I'm not sure why IP rights are different.

 

[darjr]

Ed is not afraid of saying his mind.

 

[jdrakeh]

and WotC made it worse.

How? By not signing the rights to FR back over to him? That doesn't make any sense.

[Edit: I realize that you didn't say this, but it's literally the only way Wizards could make up for TSR's screw job. And doing so makes no sense. Nor are Wizards under any obligation to do so. So how, besides not doing this, did they "make it worse" pray tell?]

 

[Staffan]

In any case, googling it up, came across this:

TSR - Ed Greenwood Sold The Forgotten Realms For $5,000

This week in Ben Riggs' podcast, he interviews Ed Greenwood, father of the Forgotten Realms, about his 1987 agreement with TSR wherein he sold the rights to the Realms for $5,000. "We also discuss the origin and publication of the Realms, and I am able to tell Ed, officially, how many units his...

www.enworld.org

So, about $12,500 in today's dollars. And that's just for the original grey box set – I'm pretty sure he's been compensated for the actual work he's done on the setting since.

Still, not as good as the ~@170k Keith Baker got in today's dollars.

 

[Bolares]

Wasn't Ed a big boy when he willingly sold the forgotten realms?

 

[Bolares]

Still, not as good as the ~@170k Keith Baker got in today's dollars.

Well... Eberron is WAY better than FR (this is bait)

 

[Vaalingrade]

Well, no. Because distribution is separate from creation. And distribution doesn't come for free. Everybody between you and the audience must get paid for their work, too.

There's a difference between 'not free' and the fleecing writers have to deal with.

A publishing deal will typically get you 20%

Amazon only takes 30%, but puts massive pressure on writers to underprice (books are just there to sell Kindles, so Jeff says to price at 99 cents) or go in for the KU scam where they pay you .0001 per page and reader re-reads don't count. Oh, and then there's the 15-29 cent 'delivery charge' to move ~20mb of data.

The industry gravely exploits writers.

 

[Umbran]

The industry gravely exploits writers.

Well, if your main example is Amazon, take into consideration that they exploit... pretty much everybody. That's no longer about writers, but about Amazon.

 

[Mort]

There's a difference between 'not free' and the fleecing writers have to deal with.

A publishing deal will typically get you 20%

Amazon only takes 30%, but puts massive pressure on writers to underprice (books are just there to sell Kindles, so Jeff says to price at 99 cents) or go in for the KU scam where they pay you .0001 per page and reader re-reads don't count. Oh, and then there's the 15-29 cent 'delivery charge' to move ~20mb of data.

The industry gravely exploits writers.

Industries tend to exploit their workers.

My best friend's sister is a multiple Grammy nominated artist. Listening to her talk about how little she's made from her early (and even not so early) recording contracts is chilling.